Data Encryption with SEDs

Can you have your data and store it, too?

Data: humans have created enormous amounts at lightening speed in short time. However, evolution has hard-wired the human race for excess. Our default setting is: “I need more, and then some.”

When it comes to generating data, humans are just getting started. The question is: Can you have your data and store it, too?

Two worlds inextricably intertwined

People organize and process data to generate information; and we collect information to acquire knowledge. Whether greater knowledge translates to greater wisdom is up for debate. What is not up for debate is that over the last few decades, data has grown in importance. People now live in two worlds: the old material world and the new digitally connected world built on data. Our two worlds are inextricably intertwined. Theft or damage to data in our digital world has a material effect on us in the real world.

Theft or damage to data in our digital world has a material effect on us in the real world.”

Stephen Hawking said, “I think computer viruses should count as life… It says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”1 Hawking is wary of human nature, and rightfully so.

A good dose of paranoia and data security are essential to our material well-being.”

While trust in humanity is healthy for our mental well-being, a good dose of paranoia and data security are essential to our material well-being. Identity theft, finding ourselves on the wrong end of a phishing scheme, or someone hacking into our bank accounts could ruin a perfectly fine morning. In fact, in several industry sectors, such as Health Care, Government, and Finance, the regulations for security and compliance are becoming increasingly stringent.

Securing data not a trivial pursuit

While the importance of data security is well understood, securing data is not a trivial pursuit. Gene Spafford (aka “Spaf”) went so far as to say, “The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.” This, of course, is not practical. Security experts will tell you that what is practical is an end-to-end multi-layered security model that extends from end-users and their devices, all the way down to data sitting on disk in the data center.

Security experts will tell you that what is practical is an end-to-end multi-layered security model that extends from end-users and their devices, all the way down to data sitting on disk in the data center.”

Unlike traditional approaches, with SEDs, the encryption tasks are moved to individual drives, away from CPUs and chipsets on the server.

Until recently, performance and complexity have been barriers to the broad adoption of data-at-rest encryption inside the data center. Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) help to eliminate those barriers. SEDs provide hardware-based data encryption at the drive level. Unlike traditional approaches, with SEDs the encryption tasks are moved to individual drives, away from CPUs and chipsets on the server. SEDs eliminate complexity by making encryption workloads and functions completely transparent to users, applications and operating systems.

Enter Intelligent Flash Arrays, built using SEDs

Tegile’s T Series Intelligent Flash Arrays — both all-flash and hybrid — are built using SEDs. As with all product software features from Tegile, data-at-rest encryption is bundled with our systems at no additional cost. With Tegile arrays, users get data encryption without sacrificing performance or introducing complexity. Data is compressed and deduplicated before it is sent to the drives where the encryption is done. As a result, along with encryption, users still get all the data reduction benefits that are a hallmark of our arrays.

With Tegile arrays, users get data encryption without sacrificing performance or introducing complexity.”

So when we ask, “Can you have your data and store it, too?” the answer is an emphatic “yes!” Even though we as humans may generate ever more data, we can handle it efficiently and securely with Tegile storage. So you can have your data and store it, too.